Blades, fire and the hospitals of Paragon
by SJ777
Summary: In Paragon City and beyond, heroes and villains clash spectacularly every day. These are the stylised accounts of their stories, told in a manner to be most entertaining to read. Isn't that what it's all about, after all?
1. Need a new catchphrase

_Disclaimer: This fic features City of Heroes characters created by me, other players, and NPCs and such created by the developers of the game. Now, the legal stuff is a bit complicated with this particular game…so I'll say I can't really say I own anything. In this case, I would probably consider imitation as flattery- but not plagiarism. That will get you horribly killed._

Paragon Adventures: SJ and co

Part One: Gotta change my battlecry

"Take 'im down!" yelled an Italian-American accent as Button Men charged towards the white-clad hero.

Sabre Justice faced an array of chemically-enhanced fists, powerful guns and steel blades, wielded by the fierce fury of the modern Mafia, known as the Family. Sabre smirked- he in turn was clad in projectile-deflecting force fields, equipped with nanomachines in his body that tripled his speed and reflexes, and armed with a big shiny sword. He smirked and said "Bring it on!"

Half a dozen goons circled and attacked the hero, but were met by a series of strikes on the brawler who had been first to attack- in a flash of a powered blade and a tornado whirl of energy, he went down and others moved back. Sabre Justice proceeded to defeat and demoralise the remaining gangsters one by one, taking care to strike the final blows with the flat of his blade rather that the edge- he had honour to keep on behalf of Paragon's heroes.

As the last crook fell to the floor unconscious, Sabre turned to the Capo Gunner. The Mafia lieutenant almost looked nervous before pulling out his old-looking but very modern Tommy gun and unloading the entire drum barrel at the swordsman.

Sabre walked steadily towards the gunner, deflecting the projectiles with his high-tech sword. Some he missed, and those were absorbed by his fire-resistant jacket and force fields- causing a noticeable but unworrying drop in his defensive energy levels on the HUD his bionic eye implants provided. As the barrel went dry and the Capo frantically reloaded, Sabre Justice activated the energy burn on his sword reactor and slashed without mercy at the Mafia hitman- finishing in a whirlwind strike that brought him to his knees.

Disarmed and defeated, the Capo felt the tip of a warm metal blade just under his chin, pushing his head up to face the fearless hero. "Ready to give up?" asked Sabre Justice.

Sabre relaxed his blade just enough to allow the criminal to give a tiny nod. SJ smiled and slapped a pair of light-matter cuffs on the Capo, unbreakable and later retrievable from the police. The Capo looked back as the hero ran off, then wondered how the boss could get these crazy cuffs off him if they even managed to beat that lunatic…

Further on in the underbelly of the ship, the Underboss was overseeing his men who were guarding yet another shipment of Superadine from an annoyingly likely superhero attack. Hearing a hell of a racket coming from a distance back, the Underboss turned around and said "What the heck was that?". A moment later, his question was answered as the hero leapt up onto a crate overlooking him and his men.

The hero was wearing a white dress jacket with light blue trimmings, with white pants to match striped the same blue down the sides. He was Caucasian in appearance with pronounced features and white hair tied with a blue headband, and oddly enough was wearing a pair of winter earmuffs. In one of his hands, which were clad in fingerless gloves, he held a large broadsword, and a long flowing cape in the same blue and white trailed from his shoulders, held with diamond-shaped buckles the same as the symbol on his jacket. "Time to take this bad boy down!" shouted the hero, who was thinking of changing his signature battle cry.

The Underboss instantly recognised this hero's distinctive outfit. "Sabre Justice!" he shouted, drawing his Tommy gun. "You're mine!"

Just as he was about to fire, the hero disappeared in a white flash- sensing movement with his enhanced senses, the Underboss turned around just in time to fire at the teleporting swordsman who charged at him with a freshly-recharged glowing blade.

The Underboss was protected by a combination of scientific enhancements and tech not dissimilar to that which protected Sabre Justice from his own super-strong blows. Locked in fierce combat, the Underboss didn't seem to be able to knock down this guy!

After a few blows had penetrated his defences and bruised him pretty bad, Sabre Justice leapt back, panting. He was injured and fatigued, but from the look of it his foe was only a few hits away from falling himself. With a small smile, the hero activated the emergency reserves in several of his equipment components, revitalising him for one final assault. As the Underboss charged at his supposedly weakened foe, Sabre Justice retaliated with a lightning display of swordplay, finally delivering a critical blow that brought the villain to the floor. "I'll get you for this, kid, mark my words…" wheezed the man as SJ cuffed him.

The Australian hero chuckled slightly as he considered that his battle cry wasn't too bad in a city of people who talked like that. But he was still thinking of changing it.

Sending a transmission to the police, Sabre Justice then teleported off.


	2. Fawkses of Fire

Part Two: Fawkses of Fire

"Let's light it up!"

The wounded but undaunted Firefawks charged into the fray, holding a firey scimitar. The Council soldier didn't know what hit him as the blade sent him to the floor. Grinning, the Fawks shrugged off more stray projectiles as he charged alongside his fellow heroes engaged in a fierce melee with an entire platoon of the fascist army. He pulled out his hastily-constructed multipurpose gun from nowhere and fired a powerful shot which brought down another soldier, then Firefawks himself was knocked back by a grenade, injured almost to the point of unconsciousness…

Still without fear, Firefawks grinned and hopped up, whipping out his fire scimitar. Charged with fury and defiance in the face of overwhelming odds, he leaped into battle and span with his blade, taking down every enemy around him! But a falling marksman managed to fire one last shot as he went down, which hit Firefawks square in the chest. The orange hero fell to the floor… and disappeared.

Seconds later, in the Steel Canyon hospital, Firefawks hung suspended in a healing chamber, adapted alien technology restoring his body to perfect health and revitalising his stamina. As the field dropped him, he stood up straight and opened his eyes.

"Woo! That was nuts! Back in a second guys!" he said into his team communicator as he bolted down the hall into the lift, and out the hospital door- the battle was taking place in an office building just down the block from the hospital.

A minute later, Firefawks burst out of the office lift to catch up with his team. They hadn't quite arrested all the Council soldiers in the building yet, and besides, there was a catgirl on the team Firefawks was thinking of asking out… thankfully, his team were all assembled and just starting into another unit of the black-clad soldiers. Firefawks once again leapt into the fray, determined to make up for lost time by taking down everything that moved!

But in his enthusiasm, Firefawks let his auto-target stray to a soldier near a door at the edge of the room, not participating in the current engagement… catching a round of bullets in his armoured back was enough for the grunt to call on his unit to join the fray, and over a dozen more Council charged through the door before the team had even finished with the last lot!

"Oops. Sorry!" called Firefawks to his teammates, but they didn't seem to mind. Despite their unprepared state, the other heroes engaged the new wave of enemies, and Firefawks, still wanting to make up for his mistake, fought with extra fury as he opened fire again, not worrying about the wounds he was taking…

…he woke up once again in the hospital. "Wait, don't finish without me!" Firefawks shouted over his communicator as he bolted down the hall once again.


End file.
